The Semiotics of Theatre

Description

Translated by Jeremy Gaines and Doris L. Jones. Erika Fischer-Lichte is Director of the Institute of Theater Research at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz. In this book she describes the different cultural systems that can be employed as theatrical sign-systems and explores how they generate meaning.Introduction Theater as a Cultural System The Theatrical CodeThe Theatrical Code as a SystemThe Actor’s Activities as a Sign Language-based Signs Linguistic Signs Paralinguistic Signs Kinesic Signs Mimic Signs Gestural Signs Proxemic Signs The Actor’s Appearance as a Sign Mask Hairstyle Costume Spatial Signs Theatrical Space Stage Space Decoration Props Lighting Nonverbal Acoustic Signs Sounds Music Theater as a Semiotic System The Specificity of the Theatrical Sign Structure and Hierarchy Theatrical Communication TheatricialityThe Theatrical Gesture as a NormThe Gesture in Eighteenth-Century German Theater From System to Norm Problems of a Semiotic Historical Reconstruction The Gestural Code in Eighteenth-Century German Theater Preconditions: The Gestural Code of Baroque Theater Changes in the Baroque Gestural Code during the Early Enlightenment The Genesis of a Gestural Code for Bourgeois Illusionist Theater Gestures in Theater as a Representational System of Meaning in the Discourse of the EpochThe Theatrical Code as SpeechPerformance as Theatrical Text The Concept of the Theatrical Text On the Constitution of the Theatrical Text The Transformation of the Drama’s Literary Text into the Theatrical Text of the Performance The Hermeneutics of the Theatrical Text The Process of Constituting Meaning and Sense as a Method of Analyzing Theatrical Texts Theory and Method Individual Analytic Procedures Recourse to the Theatrical Code as a System and a Norm Segmentation Selection and Combination Internal and External Recoding On Applying the Method Problems of Notation Concluding Remarks on the Kinesic Code of the German Theater of the 1970sNotes Bibliography Index of Names Index of Terms